Sunday, November 8, 2015

Obama Looks More Likely to Close Guantanamo Via Executive Action

President making last-ditch effort to get Congress on board, but his allies say move won’t work

President Barack Obama appears increasingly likely to have to resort to executive action to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a move that would fulfill one of his earliest promises.

The president is making a last-ditch effort to work through Congress to shut down the prison, but his timing is expected to trigger a battle with lawmakers that allies said he can’t win.

Guards moving a shackled detainee at the detention

facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2010.

Photo: Louie Palu/Zuma Press

Guantanamo Bay held 112 detainees as of Oct. 30, down from 240 when Mr. Obama took office. Closing the detention facility, which Mr. Obama has called a national-security threat and a recruitment tool for terrorists, has been his goal since he campaigned for the White House in 2008.

Mr. Obama plans to send a revised plan on the prison to Congress in coming days. White House officials have said the facility can be closed only if some detainees are relocated to prisons in the U.S.

However, lawmakers have settled on legislation continuing a ban on transferring detainees to the U.S. through 2016.

The House is scheduled to vote on that bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, on Thursday, to be followed by a vote in the Senate later this year. It is expected to pass both chambers.

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday that Mr. Obama doesn’t have enough support in Congress for shutting the prison.

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